RBP4 [SPOILERS] - Shaka of Zulu (sunrise089, regoarrarr, and friends)

[regoarrarr]

Okay so I know I owe you guys a diplomatic overview post, so here goes some thoughts.

So I do know that Lord Parkin is winning this game currently. Maybe he's already in a "snowball" position where he threatens to be a runaway. Of course, we all thought the same thing a few turns ago about plako.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but we did agree to a NAP with Lord Parkin till T250. This was a turn or two before things started to get more serious in the "let's all go attack LP talks". I'm not sure if this is known in the lurker community, and/or if it's known by other players. I have been downplaying it in my conversations with others.

The deal with LP was brought on because plako went all "Cold war" on us, by bullying in negotiations, putting 30ept on us, and closing borders. So we felt like we needed to secure a deal with at least one of our big neighbors. Plako's actions were brought on because someone (I suspect LP among others) told him that I was trying to organize folks against him (plako).

So anyways, a few turns later, plako comes more contrite and wants to talk peace. I believe that somewhere in here he tried to negotiate an arrangement with LP to attack us, and LP declined (perhaps as a result of his and our deal).

So, among all this, there is tons of anti-LP talk, and talk of a coalition being formed. Now we a) can't join this coalition anyways due to past deals, and b) don't really want to because we need to use this time to grow vertically.

Now on the other hand, a long protracted war between LP and plako (and others) DOES seem like it would be in our best interests, as it would allow us some "catch-up" time. So I kind of want to encourage it.

Of course, I feel like kind of a jerk conspiring against my ally. But that's what happens when sunrise lets me do what he calls "rego diplo"

In any case, so we talked to Parkin and agreed that the timeframe for an attack on plako would be around T200. So I felt like I could "safely" sign a NAP with plako till T187 (30 turns).

If there is some sort of attack on Parkin (and who knows if there will be one or if it will be any kind of successful, I have my doubts) before then, I have some sort of deniability about getting involved (I can't due to my agreement with plako). Again, I feel somewhat conflicted and jerk-like about this. I just keep having to remind myself about the no OB for most of the game and no Christian missionaries

In the midst of all this is the Adlain talk. I don't think we can commit much to that but I want to at least have the conversations about it. Really just want a piece of that Buddhist shrine.

So that's about it. Happy everyone? Questions?

[novice]

One other option would be to try and speed up our creation of a Great Merchant in Vine. Other games aside that would be a pretty effective way to fuel some research.

Surely that's a foolproof plan?

[regoarrarr]

Surely that's a foolproof plan?

Shoutout!

[sunrise089]

At first I thought he was sticking it to you because you never log in to play, and was pointing out what you could click to launch the game.

But now I think he is trying to stick it to you about the whole RPB / RBPB / RBP thing

Yep, throwing salt.

The RBP vs RBPB thing is the least fun part of RB for me, I view it like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_eSwq1ewsU

[NobleHelium]

I wasn't trying to throw salt. I had thought you were correct on the name, but it appears not so.

[darrelljs]

Surely that's a foolproof plan?

.

Darrell

[Ellimist]

I just keep having to remind myself about the no OB for most of the game and no Christian missionaries

And charging you for your Great Merchant mission.

[regoarrarr]

T158 played and Civil Service came in. We also caught up to SleepignMoogle in score (though that may go down if we whip anything)

Tech-wise
* Lord Parkin just teched Alpha and he's actually slightly behind Nakor in beakers
* Nakor got Education last turn as I mentioned
* Locke got Calendar
* Adlain got Guilds (which may hamper any attack we make)

[regoarrarr]

Email to Moogle

Okay. First of all, we accept the NAP till T225. In looking at the map, it didn't appear to me that Seizewell (Adlain's capital) was much further if any from our side of things. But I didn't count tiles or anything. In any case, I just think that between the three of us we need to figure that out before any hostilities start up. To me it doesn't matter who actually controls the shrine city (Though I prefer it be one of us as we're the actual Buddhists!!), but we at the very least need to come up with an arrangement to split the gold in some way. There's probably close to 50 Buddhist cities by now, and I don't think that it makes sense that say, Locke gets that and 100gpt for the rest of the game just because the city is 2 tiles closer to him than us.

Does that make sense? Though it may be somewhat of a moot point by now becaue Adlain just discovered Guilds last turn. So while I was okay (though slightly hesitant) to attack a technologically equal enemy (maces vs. longbows) due to 3 on 1 production, I'm not so sure that attacking someone who can field higher strength units than anything we can throw at him is a wise move. His power is still low, so it could be that he went there mostly for a grocer in the capital.

At the very least we should make sure one of us can field some pikes. We've got a good number of impis in the field, but even with our free Combat 1 promo that's a little tough.

Would you be willing to share your techs with us? With most folks having Alpha it's fairly widely known anyways but for us, we have

* 16 of the 17 ancient techs (no Meditation)
* 10 of the 14 classical techs (We're missing Aesthetics and up and Alpha)
* 2 medieval techs (Machinery and CS)

How about you?

Extending the NAP, talking about the Adlain war, and sharing our tech pace

[regoarrarr]

Hmmmm